1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a mechanical fuel pump driven by, and incorporated within, a dynamic balancing mechanism in an internal combustion engine.
2. Disclosure Information
Automotive internal combustion engines once used carburetors for mixing air with fuel. Because carburetors utilize venturis to draw fuel into the air, carburetors were typically fed by low pressure fuel sources, such as mechanically or vacuum driven diaphragm pumps.
With the advent of electronic fuel injection, the ubiquitous solution for fuel pumps became the in-tank mounted electric pump. Such pumps are typically capable of reliably producing fuel pressures in the sub-100 p.s.i. regime.
Because of increasingly more stringent vehicle emission controls, engine developers have turned to direct injection of gasoline into the combustion chambers of the newest engines. Unfortunately, better mixture preparation requires that the desired injection pressures be much higher, and with these new fuel systems, electric pumps will likely be relegated to the role of a lift pump providing fuel to a higher pressure pump driven by the engine. Of course, it is desirable to provide such an added pump without unnecessary expense, and with a minimal requirement for additional space. Although it is known to mount pumps externally upon an engine, ever more crowded engine compartments do not readily lend themselves to this solution.
It would be desirable to provide an engine-driven mechanical fuel pump which has a minimum number of additional parts, coupled with high pressure capability, and which causes no added expenditure of precious space within the underhood environment of the vehicle.